The Pentagon speaks out on cyber threats

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters today that a computer system in the Office of the Secretary of Defense was hacked into back in June.

Whitman did not single out the Chinese for the incident, claiming it is difficult to pinpoint the origin of the attack and tie it to a specific government or nation.

“Cyber or non-kinetic type threats to military computer networks are
viewed as just as real and just as significant as physical or kinetic threats,” Whitman said. “The department aggressively responds to deter
all intrusions to defend what is known as the GIG, the global
information grid.”

Whitman went on to say that there are hundreds of attempted intrusions into the DoD computer network each year and that the majority of them are detected and stopped. He describes the people behind such actions as recreational hackers, cyber vigilanties, groups with nationalistic or ideological agendas and nation states.